This trope deals with the after effects of either a Luke, You Are My Father situation, or a sudden Street Urchin adoption. Unlike other dads, this man hasn't raised this child since birth and doesn't have the level of experience that most dads at this point in the child's life would be expected to have. He doesn't know how to braid a little girl's hair or get a toddler to eat his vegetables. And even if he took the child in of his own volition and is happy to have a youngster in his bachelor pad, he is going to go through a period of acclimatization.

To qualify for this trope, a male (who need not necessarily be related to the child, simply acting in a fatherly role) must suddenly be given sole responsibility over this child AND not have enough prior experience in this capacity to know what the heck he is doing. Maybe there was a divorce, and the kid lived with Mom but she died or ran off. Maybe he just took in an unrelated child off the streets, or his Kid from the Future ended up on his doorstep. Either way, he has to shape up fast.

Examples

In Bunny Drop, Daikichi, despite being a bachelor, adopts his grandfather's illegitimate 6-year old daughter (yes, that makes her his aunt), when no one else in his family would take on the responsibility. It could be a subversion in that he has to ask for advice and goes through a lot of crap at work trying to make time to be able to pick her up from preschool, but all in all he does a really good job.

Otaku No Musume San is about an otaku who gets his formerly unknown daughter dumped on him by his high school sweetheart. Furthermore, the climax of the story is what happens when the mother comes back and intends to take the daughter back.

In Black Cat, Sven adopts Eve after rescuing her from a weapons dealer. Do clones who came out of a test tube and technically never had a biological mother or father count?

Later on, the gang does discover Eve's creator and biological genitor (that is, the scientist who cloned Eve from herself); both feel a sort of filial connection and there's talk about Eve staying with her but they commonly decide not to.

Sakende Yaruze! features a type two, where the father, unaware that he had a kid, has his seventeen year old son show up on his doorstep one day after his mother's death. Though they do manage to build something of a relationship in spite of their conflict, they ultimately can't make it work and the son moves back in with his maternal grandmother at the end.

This happens in the backstory of Yotsuba&!. Koiwai adopts Yotsuba without having any prior parenting experience.

In My Girl by Mizu Sahara, the hero gets his formerly unknown five-year-old daughter dropped in his lap when his high-school sweetheart dies. The story is played for the heart-warming drama.

In subversion, he got a lot of help from his own parents and his dead lover's mom.

In Papa no Iukoto o Kikinasai!, university freshman Segawa Yuuta takes in his sister's three daughters (ages 14, 10, and 3) to prevent the other family members from separating them. Naturally, the move from their home to his one room apartment causes problems...and problems.

Dante as ten-year-old Nero's father in the AUDevil May Cry fic "Like Father, Like Son", fully demonstrated in chapter 6. Trish also lampshades it in the same chapter, chastising Dante that he has to "grow up, at least a little bit" and "shape up". Patty doesn't quite count as Dante's kid, as she visits the shop instead of permanently living there.

In Jungle 2 Jungle, Tim Alan's character is suddenly dumped with his thirteen year old son who has been raised by his mother with indigenous people in the amazon, because his mother told him when he was a man he could go visit his Father, and based on tribal traditions he's a man at this age.

In The Game Plan, Dwayne Jonhson's character is a professional football player who suddenly is stuck with his 8-year old daughter who he didn't know existed until she showed up on his door step. He doesn't take it well.

In Matchstick Men, Roy Waller suddenly has to take care of his 14-year old daughter, whom he hadn't seen since she was in the womb. Considering he's a neurotic, obsessive compulsive, bachelor con artist you can guess how prepared he is for it.

In Despicable Me, Gru adopts three little girls as part of his own insidious plans. At first he ignores them and does a terrible job parenting, having no intention of actually being their father, only to use them, but eventually he comes around and really gets into being a Dad, and takes on the challenge for real.

Buddy's biological dad in Elf is this, although the focus of the film is elsewhere. On the other hand, Walter is involved in the upbringing of his younger son by a different woman.

In Breakfast With Scot, the titular Scot's mother dies of a drug overdose, and custody is supposed to go to her ex-boyfriend (who isn't Scot's biological father). Said boyfriend being a jerkass off in Brazil, Scot ends up with the jerkass's brother and his partner.

In Big Daddy this happens to the main character's roommate but the roommate is out of town when the kid arrives so the main character tells child services he's the kid's father. Eventually child services finds out the main character was lying and a trial ensues where the child's real dad saves the day.

The movie Parenthood has Larry, whose response to having his newly discovered son dumped on him is to in turn dump the kid on his parents.

Gender-flipped in Raising Helen, where high-living Helen ends up as a single mom to her newly orphaned nieces and nephews. Her new love interest, the local pastor, adjusts far more easily to the kids.

Old Dogs: Robin Williams' character discovers that his short marriage resulted in twins when his ex-wife dumps them on his doorstep and asks to take care of them while she faces jail time for an environmental protest.

A variation in Real Steel; the Jerkass self-admitted unfit father played by Hugh Jackman starts by off-handedly signing the adoption papers that will give his son (who he hasn't seen in years,) to the boy's mother's family. However, the recently married husband of that family wants one summer holiday alone with his new wife before becoming a full time parent, so pays the jerkass to look after his biological son for that period of time. Neither the biological nor the adopted father are aiming for any father-son bonding to happen, and fully expect the boy to be happily adopted and never to have anything to do with his useless biological father, but needless to say, this trope ends up being played completely straight.

It's played this way in Jack & Sarah when the protagonist's wife dies in childbirth, leaving him to raise their baby alone. Between the shock of his wife's death and the fact he doesn't have her around to help, he's totally lost and ends up doing things such as putting the baby in a large envelope for want of nappies.

Gender-flipped in Maleficent, when three female pixies have no idea how to raise a human baby. They never become competent parents, instead, two other non-humans, one male, one female, have to ensure that the baby survives. Spoiler ahead: This fancomic exaggerates just a little bit.

In Mostly Harmless, Trillian leaves her daughter in Arthur's care, saying that she is his daughter, too. However, it's only true in biological sense: her pregnancy was via artificial insemination and Arthur just happened to be the only human sperm donor left in the universe after the destruction of Earth.

The Suvi Kinos series begins with the titular character being orphaned in a car accident. She ends up in the care of her uncles. Her five hulking, academical doctor uncles. They are varying mixes of caveman and nerd, so hilarity ensues. For example, when little Suvi cries to not be pacified by default maintenance, they look up a childcare book, and end up desperate because there's no index entry for "vocal alarm". The entire first book, dealing with Suvi's years 0 to 6, is a big zigzagging of this trope.

Irene Hannon's book Apprentice Father is all about this trope: the main character's sister gets murdered by her husband, and her two young children go to him. He's got no parenting experience whatsoever, and on top of that has to take into account the emotional damage from what they've been through, but thanks to his new housekeeper, ends up creating a happy environment for them and finds he likes being a dad.

Ally McBeal somehow managed to reverse this trope an have a sink or swim mother.

My Two Dads is made from this. Woman dies, wills that the father of her daughter should raise her - but it could be one of two guys (it started before genetic testing was mainstream, though this was addressed in a later episode). So they both raise her. Neither one knew of the child until the death of the mother.

Happens to Worf twice on Star Trek: The Next Generation: the first time, he learns about his son Alexander shortly before Alexander's mother is killed, and about a season later, Worf's parents (who have been looking after him) send Alexander to the Enterprise to live with his father.

A few in-series years later, it happens again during the Dominion War. An apparently late-teen Alexander (who according to the timeline should be about 11-12), shows up an a newly enlisted recruit aboard the Klingon warship on which Worf is serving as First Officer. This time, instead of a strong-willed child, Worf has to deal with an angry teen. He does much better this time around and they quickly come to terms with each other. Alexander even serves as his best-man at his wedding.

Happens in Badger. Much of the domestic plot is driven by Wilf, the teenaged daughter Tom McCabe never knew he had, who rocks up on his doorstep.

Happens in Angel season 4 Angel's son comes back as a teen after being raised in a hell dimension since he was a baby. In fact, Angel could be considered a victim of this from the moment he discovered Connor's existence: vampiric sexual contact doesn't produce offspring. Ever. And Angel is the king of vampiric exceptions, as both he and Darla were dismayed to discover.

Crochety photographer Henry Warnimont discovers Punky Brewster living by herself in a vacant apartment (she was abandoned by her mother) and initially planned to take her to Fenster Hall orphanage. That is, until Punky warmed his heart. It didn't take long for Henry to be able to swim as her new dad.

Happens a lot on 16 and Pregnant. A lot of the dads...really aren't emotionally ready to be dads due to their young ages. (The same could be said about some of the moms, but it seems to happen more with the dads.) Some of these teen dads do eventually get into their new role...the vast majority of them don't. (Or they do for a little while, only to lapse right back into their old partying ways.)

In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, the newly disbarred Phoenix Wright becomes an instant dad after choosing to adopt the young daughter of his disappeared client. It's lucky little Trucy is so competent.

Happens in Niels when Niels' until-then-unknown half-black son Magnus seeks him out after his mother dies. Though Magnus still lives with his adopted mother he and Niels manage to form a functional relationship.

The Powerpuff Girls were the result of Professor Utonium mixing of known elements (sugar, spice and everything nice) and an unstable element (Chemical X). He initially set out to create "the perfect little girl" to bring a little sunshine into his corner of the cruel world—he got three superpowered girls in the bargain. Warts and all, he wouldn't trade being their dad for anything.

The Batman's interpretation of Robin's origin has an element of this. As an orphan himself, Bruce Wayne decides to take Dick in as a foster son, telling Alfred he wants to give him the same stability and support Alfred gave him as a child... but he's not very good at it, at first, because he's also determined that Dick won't spend his life agonizing over his parents' killer getting away, while often leaving Dick alone. It takes him some time (and Dick some superhero initiative) to find the right balance of grandiose favors and just being there for him.

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